Using NVME Optane drive in usb enclosure

For various reasons, I replaced the 1 TB NVME Optane drive in my laptop with a normal 1 TB NVME (no optane drive) and laptop works great.

I put the optane nvme in a usb enclosure and it is seen ok, but when I copy to it (large or small files), I was getting write speeds of only around 80-100 MB/s on a usb 3.1 port, and often dropping as low as 20 MB/s.

The nvme drive now in laptop was in same usb enclosure and used to blitz along at writing of 500-600 MB/s.
I have just bought a new 1TB nvme (non optane drive) and put that in the enclosure - BOOM - write speeds back up to 500-600 MB/s!

My laptop does not have AHCI mode (no SATA slots). The internal NVMEs need IRST drivers.

When the optane drive was internal, it operated at typical nvme speeds - put it in a caddy and it is worse than a hard drive!

So my optane drive usb drive is only going to be used as for data backup syncing key folders where speed is not important (although it will take ages to do initial data transfer to it).

What I did notice is the optane drive runs very hot >75C when transferring data to it compared with <60 C for normal nvme drives.

I am not really looking for advice as I have replaced the drive, but I would be interested in other user experiences with optane nvme drives in a usb caddy?

What USB version connector does the enclosure use? Is this an M.2 enclosure or one that uses a PCie slot? What is the exact model of the two drives you are comparing?

Actually just looking at this, it's probably a bandwidth issue. What are the specs on the enclosure as well?

This is why I try to avoid (as much as I can) components with proprietary technology. They usually just work at their best with compatible hardware.

badrobot said:

This is why I try to avoid (as much as I can) components with proprietary technology. They usually just work at their best with compatible hardware.

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Yeah. I have limited knowledge of Optane as a brand, but the fact that 2 Lanes are used for actual NVME storage and 2 are used for the 32 GB of memory is probably "confusing" the enclosure driver. Intel would probably have to add support for the enclosure through an update to its drivers, but that's just my guess.

Which Optane is it? The H20 is a hybrid that uses a small 32GB Optane cache in front of 900+some GB of QLC NAND. I believe for the cache to function, it requires Intel RST drivers. With a USB enclosure, for which RST is not available, it may only see the QLC NAND, which is slow as a hard drive.

I agree with geneo. From what I've read about it, without it being able to use IRST, speed would be slow as molasses. I know just enough to stay away from it. Scares the bejesus out of me. Must have scared a lot of other people too since Intel abandoned it and took a loss of half billion dollars. It's a shame there's not some kind of firmware update that one could use to turn it into a plain ol' nvme drive, but with such advanced technology I guess that thinking is pretty simplistic.

I have two redundant optane drives now after replacing them. Was wondering what to do with them but sounds like using them for back up isn't good then. I was wondering if I could install them in a real slow low powered computer to speed it up?

Fiveish said:

What USB version connector does the enclosure use? Is this an M.2 enclosure or one that uses a PCie slot? What is the exact model of the two drives you are comparing?

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Both are nvme as shown here, one has optane module (Intel), other does not (Kingston nvme).

Caddy only accepts this type.

By the way, I have two caddys - same effect Kingston fast, Intel slow.

Fiveish said:

Yeah. I have limited knowledge of Optane as a brand, but the fact that 2 Lanes are used for actual NVME storage and 2 are used for the 32 GB of memory is probably "confusing" the enclosure driver. Intel would probably have to add support for the enclosure through an update to its drivers, but that's just my guess.

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Yeah - I think this is probably it.

My PC came with optane nvme.

Still it is still useful for backup usb storage - even though slow it is as fast as my older hdd backup drives.

Hazel123 said:

I have two redundant optane drives now after replacing them. Was wondering what to do with them but sounds like using them for back up isn't good then. I was wondering if I could install them in a real slow low powered computer to speed it up?

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Sure, why not if pc supports it.

Most older pcs do not support nvme and require tradition SATA SSDs.

There are converters but all the ones for laptops I have seen do not support nvme with m connection (nvme/irst).

edit: have found a couple at £15.

There are desktop converters e.g.